She shakes her head. So it's by chance that they chose our tree to eat breakfast under us. I strain my ears.
The girl from 4 is giggling as Auberg talks. "And then he says, 'Please don't kill me!' and I'm like, 'Why not?' and he goes, 'I don't want to die!' and I say, 'Bad excuse," and stabbed him."
Mella's grinning, but shaking her head. "No, the best kill was that one boy from 3, the one who wasn't even looking at me." A chorus of agreement follows this statement. "I put a spear through her back, and she turns around, with the point sticking out of her chest, like she didn't even notice. She's just like, Huh? And then she goes down, looking really confused." There's a gale of laughter as the tribute from 2 reenacts this scene.
The Career girl from 4 speaks up. "I think the funniest one was that kid who was standing like ten feet away from me, trying to use a sword. I throw a spear at him, and he's got plenty of time to dodge it, but he just stares at it, like, Oh, that's pretty." All of them chortle. "Remember him? That boy who lifts feathers?"
They chuckle appreciatively, and I realize they're talking about Drake. My stomach flips over with loathing and rage.
The Careers are all cracking up, sharing more stories of their favorite kills. After about fifteen minutes of this, they pack up and move on, heading back toward the Cornucopia.
We sit there for a few seconds. Then I ask, "Where's their camp?"
"I don't know," she admits. We look at each other, then grin and climb swiftly to the ground. We stalk the Careers, always staying far enough behind them to be safe. They go through the woods, clearly searching for the last two tributes. Us.
The whole day, we follow them around, eating as we go, drinking cool water from the canteen. It's exhilarating to know exactly where they are, and to know they have no clue where I am. It's evening when they finally call it a day and retreat toward the Cornucopia. We're in high spirits, sniggering silently as they debate our location.
We watch, concealed in the trees, while Auberg leads the pack around the cliff until they come to a stone ledge in the cliff. Two wide wide, starting at the ground, sloping up. "Ladies first," the boy from 2 says courteously. Mella and the girl from 4 walk onto it, using a groove in the cliff wall as a railing. I crane my neck to see it goes all the way to the top.
This is no natural formation. It's Gamemaker-made, the only quick way up the cliff. Ama and I scale a giant pine near the cliff, going up just enough to see what's going on on the forty-foot-high plateau.
They've made their camp inside of the golden Cornucopia. All of the weapons and supplies are cleared away from the horn, and a blanket is pinned over the mouth to offer a bit of protection from the wind. The Careers lounge about on piles of blankets and sleeping bags, messing with the weapons and eating and drinking.
Six pairs of eyes study the night sky as the anthem plays out. No faces, no deaths today. The Capital audience might be getting bored, which means the Games will soon be taking some deadly twist. I allow myself not not to worry about it, though.
My dreams are full of strange, inexplicable sounds. A high keening. A dark growl. A babble of metallic voices. A vast rumbling, the volume of it wracking through my mind and body. Then Ama's shaking me awake, yelling at me to wake up, but I can hardly hear her over the noise and my eyes snap open and the rumbling continues. It's not a dream.
The mesa is collapsing, a hole in the center of the flat surface widening as blocks of stone crumble away. The Cornucopia has already fallen through. The Careers are awake, shouting, panicking. Auberg and Mella grab their weapons and sprint for the ledge, while the female from 4 and the male from 2 scramble around, trying to snatch supplies. Auberg and Mella reach the ground just as the gaping hole reaches the two other Careers who have made it to the ledge, clutching packs of weapons and food and medicines.
The ledge falls away, too. The District 4 girl is screaming, her flowing reddish-golden curls spreading out in the air behind her while she hurtles toward the ground. She thuds on the dirt head-first with a sickening crack, and her cannon blasts. The boy from 2 is on the one section of the plateau that's not yet gone, but it soon disintegrates as well, sending him falling into the huge mound of rocks that's replaced the mesa. I turn my head this time, although I can still hear the sharp sound as his neck breaks on the stones, the cannon immediate.
Mella and Auberg stare in disbelief at the pile of rock that has replaced their stronghold. They clamber over the rocks, sifting through the mangled supplies, occasionally finding a weapon that's not bent or broken, while two hovercrafts retrieve the bodies.
Ama turns to me. "Let's get them now."